


Reach for the Stars

by theclaravoyant



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, Jemma Simmons Backstory, what? i can actually write functional blood family rshps?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-09 19:42:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8909527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theclaravoyant/pseuds/theclaravoyant
Summary: After her scoliosis surgery, Jemma Simmons is bedridden and bored. Her father comes to her rescue - and, unbeknownst to him, kindles a fire that fuels Jemma for the rest of her life.





	

for [AOS Advent 2016](http://aosadvent2016.tumblr.com/). Prompt: Light.

-

“Can I get you anything else?”

Jemma stared through her glass of water, and rubbed the condensation lazily up and down with her finger.

“No thanks.”

Her father frowned and stepped back into the room, coming to sit back on the bed beside her. He took the glass of water from her and set it on the beside table, and held her hand instead.

“How’re you feeling, pumpkin? How’s your back?”

Jemma fidgeted, and winced.

“It’s okay I guess.” She sighed. “I’m just bored. My arms hurt from trying to read and everything else is just useless.” 

“I know it’s hard, sweetie,” her father crooned, “but it won’t be much longer in bed. You’ll even be back to dancing and riding soon enough.” 

“I know.” Jemma pouted, and picked at her quilt. “But ‘not much longer’ feels so _long_ when there’s nothing to _do.”_

“Well we’ll just have to _do_ something about that then, won’t we?” 

He ruffled her hair and she whined, but watched him with burning curiosity as he disappeared from her room. Patting her hair back down half-heartedly, she waited for him to return and after an agonising, but what was in reality probably very short wait, he did indeed return, and made a show of blowing the dust off his toolbox.

“Now, it’s been a while since I had this old thing out,” he announced, pulling each tool out with enthusiasm. “But for my girl, anything’s possible! And tonight, I’m going to build you a ramp to the stars!”

Jemma gaped. Her father looked around the room, swinging a hammer absently. 

“I assume the deathly-bored princess can’t wait until the hardware store opens in the morning, hm?” her father mused. Jemma shook her head emphatically, joining the spirit of the charade.

“Of course! Then we shall have to be inventive!”  
  
Jemma squirmed, excited. Pain medication and muscle fatigue kept her from leaping out of bed, but her heart was right alongside her father as he examined her furniture. He looked her chair up and down with an exaggerated, comedic posture, sticking his hips in the air and bugging an eye.

“Can we make a ramp out of this, Jemma dearest?”

“No!” 

He gestured to her dollhouse across the room. It was old, and she hadn’t played with it in years, but she still gasped and reached out to stop him when he insinuated pulling it apart.

“What about this? You don’t need this anymore, do you?” 

He ran his fingers along the eves of the precious porch and for a second, Jemma almost believed he was about to snap it off. 

“No, don’t touch it!”

Her father backed down immediately, raising his hands and keeping them clear away from the house. For a moment, he worried that he might have taken the game too far for an exhausted, bored and probably suffering Jemma, but it only took a moment before her eyes were searching the room hungrily. She jabbed a finger forward. 

“The bookshelf!” she insisted. “Pile the books up, or only take the back off. The shelf, the shelf!” 

“That’s my girl!” her father cheered, beaming, and set to work.

Good sense had of course dictated that the primarily bedridden Jemma live on the ground floor after her surgery, so they had no tight staircases to contend with, but the thresholds of each room required some negotiation. They ended up laying the back panels of the shelf over the threshold and driving Jemma’s bed up and down it, one by one, like riding a trolley through the shops.

“Are you ready?” her father asked, wheeling her toes out onto the back step. Jemma shrieked with laughter. It had been the most adventure she’d had in weeks.

“Hold on tight!”

She yelped and clenched her fingers tighter in the bedsheets. The back step was steeper than the thresholds and she felt her stomach swoop as she dropped down the few inches onto the ground of the backyard. From there, her father steered her off the bricks, and struggled across the grass until they were out under the clear sky.

Jemma gasped as the cloudless sky sparkled and shone above her. The longer she looked, the more rich the tapestry became as ever more light seemed to peek out of the darkness. Awed as she was, it took her a few minutes to realise that her father had gone back inside. In fact, by the time she’d noticed he was gone, he was stumbling out the back door with a chair in one arm and an armful of books in the other. She peered over her shoulder at him as best she could, and he smiled up at the sky, satisfied.

“Well, she certainly is putting on a show for us tonight,” he evaluated. “Beautiful, isn’t it? You know, Jemma, I was so thrilled when your mother suggested moving out here. The sky is so clear. So far away from light pollution. Remember that, when you go be a success and move to a big city to help people. You remember to step out of that business once in a while and take some time for yourself, okay? And it doesn’t have to be the stars. For me, it’s the stars. Maybe for you it’ll be the mountain, or the ocean. Something will speak to you eventually.”

Jemma snorted.

“The stars don’t speak, Dad.”

He smiled softly at her, and leaned down to kiss her hair. 

“That’s my girl,“ he murmured. Then he turned and walked back inside, and Jemma’s eyes fell to the books he had left in her lap

She ran her fingers over the cover of the first one, a richly illustrated book on mythology and constellations. Sliding that one aside revealed a thick hardcover illustrated encyclopedia, detailing everything from the myths and constellations to stargazing equipment and the names of various space exploration missions, shuttles and personnel. The third and final book her father had brought out was an old university textbook on astrophysics. Jemma flipped the cover open. It was too dark to read, really, out here, but she occupied herself with trying until her father returned cradling a large - and very precious by the looks – telescope.

Jemma remembered the telescope well. She had always loved it, even though she had rarely been allowed to touch it. It had been given to her father as a graduation gift, she remembered. It was strange seeing it outside of his study, but as he set it up around her with care and fervour, Jemma realised that this, really, was where it was meant to be.

“Pick a star, Jemma,” her father invited, when he was ready. “Pick a star, and start from there.”


End file.
